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diskant is an independent music community based in Glasgow, Scotland and we have a whole team of people from all over the UK and beyond writing about independent music and culture, from interviews with new and established bands and labels to record and fanzine reviews and articles on art, festivals and politics. There's over ten years of content here so dig in!

before i start, that was some good stuff from chris there. i really need to try and write about some of the weird things that i see every time i leave the house (of which there are many). until then…

LIGHTNING BOLT

after literally years of anticipation i finally got to see this band live on sunday, and i’m happy to report that i wasn’t disappointed in the slightest. despite a number of factors which could have made the evening a thoroughly horrific experience, the lb pulled it all together in one big skull shattering half hour. but first, the some of the downers. i was convinced as soon as we walked into the texas ballroom that i had stumbled into a bumper issue of the face, the month when it and i-d hatched a plot for try-hard hipster fucks to take over the world. i hate to be too judgemental, it’s nice that people want to go to some effort in an attempt to be different, but on this scale it was just too much. i felt overweight, underdressed and highly scrutinized.

next was the support bands. there was four, and despite the fact that none of them played for very long, it made the first part of the evening a lot more tedious that it should have been. here is a run down:

#1. some dude (don’t know his name) running around in his pants shouting over disco beats. people danced.

#2. some arty types who looked very moody and serious and sounded like harry pussy or something at first and then sounded like deerhoof but more shouty and noisy. that’s a bad description but they sucked. one of their songs was called “everyone wants to be my friend” or some crap.

#3. shouty punk band from baltimore. the singer complained a lot about hipsters (the fool) and was generally preachy and annoying. kim pointed out that he sounded a little like the singer from bob tilton/wolves of greece, which was true, but to mention the two in the same sentence seems somewhat sacrilegious so i’ll move on.

#4. the first band whose name i caught (necronomitron) and the first band who were any good at all. very “now” in that they sounded like a mix of lightning bolt, sightings, noxagt and orthrelm, but they were still very enjoyable. i wasn’t totally convinced that there were people actually playing the music though, because i couldn’t see a single band member. they must have been lying on the floor or something.

and finally, by the time necronomitron had finished, lightning bolt had set up their stuff on a piece of carpet right in front of me, which was nice. they began with brian c. standing up playing air guitar and making some crazy super distorted noise with the mic on his mouth. i was on the verge of insanity by this point, and if i wasn’t hit in the face by a thunderous barrage of noise within the next minute, bad things may have happened. thankfully, i was. they whipped through a mix of new songs i didn’t know (which incidentally sounded amazing) and stuff from wonderful rainbow, and everyone freaked out and it was very very loud indeed and at times i started to feel like my mind was separate from my body. dracula mountain was a huge sprawling beast, whipping around on the floor at my feet, daring me and everyone else present to dance and jump and fall around even harder. unfortunately the building wasn’t up to the task, and people started freaking out because they thought the floor was about to collapse (it probably was to be honest). people spread out a bit and they played another song, but we were all still dicing with death apparently, so lightning bolt were told they had to stop. being the true gents that they are though, and on the condition that everyone stood against the walls, leaving a big space in the middle of the room, they did play one more. by this point i was spent, and happy to watch from a distance as the audience swarmed around brian c. as he pulled his drums out to the far side of the room as they finished. they might not have played for very long, and they might not have played any songs from ride the skies, but it was still more than i ever hoped it could be. it was hot, chaotic and very fucking loud, and by far the best thing i have seen in years.

before the show, we also had some fun in chicago. we went to reckless records were i bought lps by vincebus eruptum and neil young, and kim got the new dirty three. i also saw the cat on form album in there which was exciting. i didn’t get it though, i’ll wait for the vinyl i think. we also ate some very good thai food and wore coats for the first time in months. hooray for autumn.

Posted: 09|30|03 at 6:41 pm.
Filed under: live reviews.
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Ollie

Ollie lives in Cambridge and puts on gigs as part of Crushing Death and Grief.